#which also kinda impacted by behavior surrounding the whole thing because i really wanted the journal

[sonknuxadow]

idk why i worried so much over making sure i got the day one edition of sxsg im literally still seeing it in stores over a month later . did they lie about it to get more people to preorder out of fear of missing out or did they make way more copies than they actually needed

[ashestospace-fics]

Thank you nature

Character: Kite

Show: HxH

Reader: shortMale

Category: Nsfw/smut 

Warnings: sizekink mainly

Summary:After years of teaming up together for several missions, the tension between you and kite gets too much to handle.

Masterlist

Request open!

It's the fourth day you stand down to guard with Kite in this new research. Something about a tiger evolving a new skill had brought your group together to observe it and analyze it's new behavior. It was a slow and quiet process that got any person bored if they weren't mentally prepare for it. But for you and kite it was one of the ways you both seemed to interact better. Neither spoke as you both got into a task, but lately that silent was slowly suffocating your lungs as the missions, days, and hour pass for you.

You don't know when it started, the brush of his hands against yours when he handed you things. His worried tone when you both encounter enemies, how in most occasions even though he always says if you can't keep up with him don't bother to follow. But quickly turns around to shield you from any attack. His hair gently touching you as he leans a bit too close, to his low chuckled that vibrated against your ears when he's the only one around to laugh at your jokes. Lately now just a simple glance of your eyes locking had your breath itching.

"Nothing still?" Kite's voice snap you back too reality as he lean over too look at the monitor clenching in your hands. He's hair falling slightly over your arm and hand. It tickled a bit, making your cheeks heat up at the proximity.

"Uh no, nothing yet" you mumble back, your eyes staring at him as he lean back to pull his hat to cover more of his face.

"at this rate we might not get anything, maybe we should move locations?" He hold into his chin as he stare back at you for confirmation. For a second you felt your eyes trail down to his lips, as soon as they looked down they snap back to the monitor to turn it off.

"yeah I think we should, i’m kinda getting tired of just standing put here" you mumble out as you stood up. Both of you were sitting near trees, which had you both hidden this entire time. He followed your lead on standing up, his looming body towered over you easily. Which normally in the start it pissed you off to a whole other level, because for a guy you were ridiculous short. Even though you were strong and could handle yourself, your height made people think other wise. Meanwhile Kite never really tease you or mention how short you where( he actually adored it.)

Looking down at you he had a lot of urges to pick you up randomly, but that would be too out of character. So the closest he has ever done too actually physically show it was his random Pat's in the head when you both finish a job. It follow no comment but a slight smile. In the start you didn't think much of it, but now it was something you itch in your weird quiet friendship with the tall hunter. You two where good friends, so you thought but the idea of actually admitting your feelings for him seemed impossible in any near future. But the feeling of bursting and screaming your feelings and desire where clearly taking over by the minute.

"let's head down north, I saw a cave over there" he suggested, you only nodded in agreement as you both started walking,your surroundings was mainly trees and bushes to no end. So when you both stop to the sound of something breaking not even Kite expected to be suddenly sliding down along with you down a narrow creak. He's arms instinctively wrap around you and pulled you closer as you slide down rapidly, your eyes squinting shut as Kite used his legs to stop the harsh impact, but not enough for you to not hit the ground and slide off his grip.

Both of you panted slightly at the scare, you look around the close gap area you both where stuck in. Your body was pressing against him as your hands grip on his white sleeves.

"you okay?" He finally breath out in his normal calm town.

"oh yeah totally, that woke me up for sure" you slightly joked, then the situation in hand woke up more in the position you where in. There was little space to move, and if you two wanted to get out it was going to take a while to even squeeze out. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that both his and your hips where press together along with your chest on his upper stomach. His hair was a curtain over you as his hands stranded you from above as he hold into the solid wall of rocks behind you.

It had your face bursting into a blush as you looked away, there was no way you will escape with out making this one awkward, you could feel your excitement growing by within you. Don't think anything dirty don't think anything dirty DON'T THINK ANYTHING DIRTY

"y/n I'm going to try and move too make it easier to get out" he suddenly warn in a quiet tone, his hot breath made you slightly light headed as you let go of his arms.

"uh okay, um uh just be careful..." You whisper out as you hold in a breath. Kite sudden movement had your eyes shutting open as his hips rolled against yours as you tried moving left. Oh fuck, you bite down your lip as he moved again slightly trying to shake his way out which just felt like a way worse idea. Your face felt like it was gonna explode by all the blooding going up, and it was not helping that you were getting hard. Heat was spreading over your body like rapid fire.

"K-kite hold on I don't think this is working-ah fuck" you hand flew over to cover your mouth. Even though it was a quiet moan you knew he heard it, he's hips had thrusted forward while he tried standing straight and you let it slip in mid sentence. Your head was glue down as you looked down at your own hard on, your legs felt weak and the embarrassment made it worse as you look at the tent in your pants. Now you where freaking out as he stop moving, you grossed him out you knew it, he didn't say anything but you knew he was staring down at you. Shame was eating you up as your legs shocked ever so slightly.

"Sorry, sorry I really am! Y-you are just s-so close and you kept moving and my head feels dizzy an-" you suddenly blabber out as you tried arching your back away as your hips moved away from touching his. You didn't even know what you where saying anymore but he's voice cut you off.

"...Did that felt good?..." He breath out, the first time you looked up at him. Only to be greeted with brown eyes looking at you in almost a haze as his pale skin was light pink. Kite's nen could normally warn anyone on how strong he is and scare them away but right now you felt like you were stuck in place as you stare at him. You felt weak on the knees as you slowly now focus how he's breathing was going faster and heavy as he lean closer to you.

"Y/n... I asked a question" he whisper out, and you felt like coming just then and there.

"y-yeah it did.." you breath out in a shaky tone as you didn't look away from him. A small hummed escape him as his hands trail down to your sides and grab you by the hips to pull you against him again. Feeling the friction between both your groins had you almost whimpering as you shut a eye close.

"let me...take care of that then..." he whisper out as his hands on your hips tighten as he's lips meet yours in a desperate sloppy kiss. His nose bumping against yours as he tried pulling you closer, you felt yourself melt into the kiss quicker than you expect, your thoughts going blank just by the fact that Kite was actually even kissing you in the first place. You expect something but definitely not this. It was also clear, he was very inexperienced by how sloppy the kisses where. But right now you didn't care, your hands tangle themselves in his hair. The kisses becoming more desperate and more in sync with both your actions, a light of passion and frustration built from it. Now apparent to you that you weren't the only one with desire for the other.

You let out a small yelp as he pulled you up and rested you against the wall, his thigh between your legs roughly rubbing against both your back and cock had you whimpering again as he pulled away from the kiss. He was staring at you with hungry eyes underneath that hat, his thumb rubbed against your swollen lips.

"y/n...you're such a good boy.." your body arch at his words, his hand trailing down to lift up your shirt and undo your pants so quickly your brain was still processing the heated kiss until you felt long finger rubbed against the tip of your cock.

"k-kite..ah" your hands grip on his shoulders as he planted more kisses on your face and neck side. "So small, I feel like I could break you if i’m too rough" he mumbled out between kisses and nipping. You pouted at this slightly, your arms wrapping around his neck as you pulled him closer. "T-try me.." you mutter out, there it was. You felt him smile against your skin as his leg moved forward to grind against you as he pulled your pants and underwear down to your ankles. You hold in the breathy moans as he wrap a arm under your bottom to hold you still. Your erection had him humming in your ears as he place a finger on your tip. "You are quite cute like this.." he said to his own amusement, he never imagine seeing you make such expression. He never imagine he would ever get turn on the way he is right now just by a little of foreplay and you cornered.

His slender fingers wrap around you and gave you slow strokes as he planted gentle kisses on ear, he was eating up every little moan that escape you. Pleasure slowly building up on the pit of your stomach. Your voice only seemed to get louder in his ears as he pulled away his hand from your cock, bringing it up to suck two fingers of his. "Quite desperate are you?" He muse as he watch you effortlessly grind your hips up in a haze. So small you practically sit in one of his thighs no effort. You didn't respond as you lean your head against his chest, heavily panting as he lifted you up slightly.

"M-Mmh? What are y-" you caught yourself gasping and gripping on his sweater. He inserted a finger in. Your legs slightly twitching as he pumped it in slowly before putting another on in with easy. "Oh they slip right in, those it hurt y/n?" he mumbled out. "A-ah a bit.." you manage to breath out. A small hum came back as a reply, he kept working his fingers inside you. Twisting and pushing as far his long fingers could reach. It had you moaning and groaning against his sweater as he stretch you out. He quietly observe every little reaction of your body and voice, how you will clench around him when he push far enough, how you where somehow getting wetter as he kept pumping his fingers inside. It had him biting his lower lip in anticipation and trying to look for self-control as he watch you become undone under him. The way your voice kept calling out to him was about to make the man snap.

"k-kite, s-stop" you mewled out in between his fingers harsh harassment. Your eyes watering up slightly as you look up at him, he stop moving. "did I do som-" "no..no just put it in already, the teasing is a pain" you complain as your hands dived down to undo his pants. His protest where quiet down by your lips as soon as he tried stopping you. It was a desperate attempt to get too the point, but also to just quiet his worries away. A low groan escape him as soon he felt your hands against his cock. It was long and big as you expect, the little voices in your head slightly worried on how your small figure was going to take it in. You gave it a few slow pumps which had him hissing as he place his hands against your hips as you position yourself against him.

You shivered at the contact, his hips jerked up to press against you. Self control was slowly slipping out of his mind as he panted against your neck. "S-shit.." you gripped on his shoulder as he place mouth open kisses on your neck. "I'll be gentle.." he whisper out trying to reassure you. His hands slowly brought you down, the stretch slow mix with pain and pleasure. A shaky breath left pass his lips until he bottom out. The whole time you hold in you breath as you tried relaxing around him.

It took a few minutes, the whole time Kite kept placing gentle kisses up to your face trying to calm down both of your nerves. Between each nip of your skin and the feeling of heat invading each area you heard a small praise from him. A low groan escape you as shifted on him. "Y..you can move now" managing to breath out those words his hands grip on your waist again. He slowly pull you up before slamming you back down. Earning both a low moan from both of you. He repeated it, having you slam down on his cock until he had a steady pace as he thrusted into you. Each time earning high moans from you and whimpers as he hit each spot of your walls perfectly.

At this point you both seemed to have forget where you were. Not giving a care at all as he pull you closer to him as your nails dig on his sweater. Bending slightly and changing the angle had him hitting your prostate in the most delicious way possible. It had your eyes rolling back as you shocked on his hold. Your walls clenching around his cock drew a low groan from him as he felt you get close to climax.

"Kite! Oh fuck I'm close- s-so close ah oh god" He pull a hand behind your head as he drew you to another messy kiss. His thrust becoming frantic as he reach down your orgasm. Your body arching and spasing around him as he rode down his own before pulling out. His lips drown out your moans as he came. Your body stay stiff as your cum hit your own stomach. His legs finally give in and slide down with you still in his grasp too sit down. Both of you panted heavily as you lean your head against his chest.

Both of you stood still as you took in what you both just did. His hand drew up to push your sweaty hair off you face. "So....uh is it to late too say I like you now?" You blurt out while smiling up to him. He stare at you before letting out a small laugh as he look to the side. "No Y/n I like you too" he pulled you closer as he place a kiss on your forehead. You couldn't help but smile out of relief. “thanks nature for this one right? this took too long” he almost cough up at your words. “Y/n..” 

"great, but how do we get out of here now?"

[pwarkluv]

❝ bookstore girl ❞ - knj

kim namjoon x reader | angst | 2.2k words

WARNINGS | lowercase is intended, falling in love kinda fluff, forbidden love au, bookstore au, idol au, some sad angst because iDoLs cAn’T dAtE (note the sarcasm), sort of a right person wrong time love story, forbidden love type of thing ya know?

SUMMARY | when the only reason he goes to his local bookshop every friday is to see you, the cute girl working at the cashier.

AUTHOR’S NOTE | inspired by “bookstore girl” by charlie burg. if you haven’t listened to that song before, GO LISTEN TO IT!! it’s one of my favorite songs ever <3 even though the song technically ends with the dude asking the girl out on a date, this is angst so the ending will be different :( anyways let us proceed!

the first time namjoon saw you he happened to stumble upon a bookshop right across his local supermarket. he remembers how excited he was to see one since there weren’t many places to go to read in his area without getting caught.

sure namjoon could always go to the library or something, but being one of the biggest kpop idols in the world meant privacy in places like the library wasn’t guaranteed. so a tiny bookstore like this was a gift sent from heaven (not that he really believes in those things).

the bell jingled as he opened the door, mask, cap, and sunglasses on to hide his identity. he still remembers your soft voice as you called out a small “hello” to him, a little weary with how sketchy he looked. 

you awkwardly waved at him as namjoon stood in shock at how gorgeous you were. your hair was in a messy bun allowing him to look at your face in detail, momentarily stunned at your beauty. 

he coughed to clear his throat a bit before continuing to walk around the store. he was doing well until he tripped over a pile of books he didn’t see, causing a thud to resonate throughout the whole bookshop.

namjoon remembers the loud gasp you gave out from the counter as you rushed to his side, freaking out and wondering if he was okay. back then he was ultimately embarrassed about it but thinking about it now brings a small smile to his face. the look of concern and absolute care made his heart swell as he silently cursed his luck. he didn’t completely hate it though, since it brought you two closer in the end. 

❝ going back just to see if still in the store you’ll be ❞ 

since then every friday on his off day, namjoon would make a trip to the bookshop across the street from the supermarket to see you. 

and to read too-

though he’s careful to keep a low profile and somehow has managed to hide his identity from you, you two still hold a close bond. 

there were so many signs telling you to stay away. you didn’t know his name, you didn’t know what he looked like, and you didn’t even have his number. but whenever you saw him walking through the door you couldn’t help but smile knowing he’s here. you really wanted to know more about him but after the first time you asked, you realized you shouldn’t pry and instead be grateful for whatever it is you two have, afraid that if you stick your nose in his business he’d leave forever.

 ❝ reading only the books that you’d recommend to me ❞ 

every army knows that namjoon loves reading books and sometimes recommends books for them to read. but what they don’t know is that half of them were originally recommended from you.

it was a clear skied friday afternoon as you worked busily moving some books from shelf to shelf. it wasn’t a busy day, only namjoon and one other person had walked in the store so far. since you didn’t know his name though, you call him bookstore boy to his amusement.

“hey bookstore boy!” you yelled out from the top of the ladder as you rearranged some books. namjoon looked up from the book he was reading, a curious look etched on his face though you couldn’t see it clearly. you silently cooed at his head tilt.

after a while namjoon felt comfortable taking his shades off but still kept his mask and cap (or beanie depending on what he was feeling like) on for some sort of secrecy. he let out a silent breath of relief when you didn’t recognize his eyes or pry him for more answers. 

“do you think you can help me out and pass me those books over there?” you grinned, the sun shining through the window pane and put a spotlight on you making namjoon flush a bit.

“y-yeah sure.” he stuttered, getting up from his seat.

“just please be careful.” you sighed. you’ve only known each other for a month and you were already hyper aware of his clumsiness. 

namjoon just chuckled in embarrassment before becoming more aware of his surroundings, not wanting to trip on something and somehow hurt you.

but of course his luck wouldn’t allow that. though it wasn’t him who fell, his heavy steps shook the ladder you were on causing you to slip. it all happened so fast and before you knew it you were holding your breath, preparing for the impact. what you didn’t expect was finding yourself in namjoon’s clumsy arms, both of you frozen in shock.

your heart started beating fast as you looked into his eyes.

you couldn’t be falling for bookstore boy, could you?

 ❝ knowing more than just your name ❞ 

it was another free friday, the only customer who came in was your favorite. 

ever since the day you literally fell into namjoon’s arms, the atmosphere between you two changed. namjoon took a little leap of faith and gave you some sort of name : joonie.

ever since then you’ve been calling him joonie instead of bookstore boy, the name sounding more fit than whatever it was you came up with. 

with the courage you’ve been mustering up for the past week, you decided to ask namjoon out on a date. a friend date.

“joonie?” you called out from behind the cashier, hearing his deep voice hum in acknowledgement behind a stack of books, too deep into his novel to really pay attention.

your palms started feeling sweaty and all of a sudden the hem of your sweater was more interesting than the task before you. you silently thanked whoever was up there for having namjoon slightly distracted, which meant less embarrassment for you.

“do you wanna eat take out with me? here? after i close up?” you fumbled a bit with your words, cursing yourself for how dumb you sound. 

namjoon immediately froze at your words, the book in his hands suddenly becoming uninteresting. his heart was hammering in his chest as he processed what just happened ten seconds ago.

did you just attempt to ask him out... cutely?

after a few moments of awkward silence (caw caw caw iykyk), you burst into a sputtering mess, apologizing as a feeble attempt to take back what you said.

“or we don’t have too haha i’m sorry let’s just forget-”

“i’d love to.”

and that’s how you found yourselves sitting on the floor of the shop underneath a spare blanket you found in the back, picnic style with the chinese food namjoon insisted on paying for. 

the poor man was trying so hard not to spill the soda you secretly ordered behind his back after assuring namjoon not to buy any drinks for you guys. you were doing a (poor) impression of yoda and the giggles couldn’t stop falling from his mouth.

you couldn’t help but smile gingerly at his laughing form. he looked absolutely ethereal, eyes disappearing as he smiled. though you wished you could just rip the mask off his face, you knew your boundaries.

unfortunately, whenever he took a bite, he lifted the bottom of his mask up, continuing to hide his face from you.

that night you learned a lot about each other.

you learned that joonie was a nickname and didn’t really go into detail about why he couldn’t reveal his real name. you didn’t pry.

he told you about his six roommates and their quirks. how one was the total mom, always scolding them about their behavior and surprisingly food. the other was a mood, sleep and work being his only favorite thing in the world. one boy could light up an entire room with his smile. but don’t be fooled, he curses more than he breathes. 

one was beyond charming and his duality was scary, to which you responded with a laugh wondering who in the world could be like this. the second to youngest could pass as the baby of the group, a “good boy” as namjoon would put it.

the youngest was a total brat and muscle pig. you almost snorted out the soda when namjoon explained to you the personality of his youngest roommate. 

namjoon also talked about himself and how he was called the “god of destruction” in their household to which you didn’t disagree. how he loved books and nature, how he wanted to be a dad.

that night you two became closer, and namjoon couldn’t help but get scared.

 ❝ it wouldn’t be the same ❞ 

you didn’t know how things got to this point. tears were streaming down your face as you stood in front of namjoon, not knowing what to do.

an hour ago you two were fine. another unbusy friday, namjoon being the only customer that day. it wasn’t until you slipped and namjoon caught you was where you (think) you messed up. from the moment he walked in you could tell he was a little tense.

the day before, namjoon decided to cut things off with you. it wasn’t because he hated you or your “date” went bad. in fact, namjoon was in love with you. he was in love with the way you bite your lip whenever he does something dumb as an attempt to not laugh. he was in love with the bright look in your eyes whenever you talked about your favorite book. he was in love with everything about you.

but he knew now wasn’t the time, not at the height of his career. he couldn’t do that to his members, not after working this hard to get to where they were now.

dating is a touchy subject for idols. fans can be quite possessive and though namjoon love love loves his army, some people took things too far. being in love and dating you could open a whole can of worms namjoon wasn’t quite ready for. 

you slipped on a mini towel you forgot was there as namjoon caught you. it was like in those kdramas where one hand was on your waist and the other on your back. the panicked look in his eyes once again made your heart race and you were surprised you didn’t have a heart attack right then and there. he was just so close.

the fuzzy feeling in your stomach took over and next thing you knew, you were kissing him. his soft lips were like a key and a lock on yours. it felt so right.

but then namjoon pushed you off, not hard enough to make you fall but enough to get you off him.

and things went downhill from there.

“you don’t like me, do you?” you said in a small voice, refusing to look into his eyes. your hands were by your side as you looked down, tears falling down your cheeks.

“no y/n, i love you. but i can’t be with you.” namjoon responded softly before taking off, leaving his hoodie behind. 

your body reacted on its own, running after him. you didn’t spare a second thought over the fact you were leaving the bookstore unattended.

“joonie please!” you called out to the running figure ahead of you, your voice cracking at the intensity your words held. mustering all the strength in your body your hands wrapped around his figure, latching onto him like a fish in a net. 

you brought your teary face to his back as his body rose up and down, panting. you could hear his sniffles indicating he was crying too. you didn’t know what to do.

what did he mean he can’t be with you? he loves you like he said. if he loves you then he should be with you, right?

“please.” you pleaded, words mumbled a bit from his back. you felt his warm hands engulf yours before he turned you around to wrap you up in a hug. namjoon’s tears kept falling as he forced his face into your hair, the height difference bringing a slight smile to his face.

“i’m so sorry y/n.” he kept repeating into your hair. the boy held you like you were his lifeline and that’s when you knew. you knew this was his last goodbye. 

something in your chest burned and the pit of your stomach felt empty as you processed what was about to happen.

suddenly namjoon pulled his mask down and covered your eyes to kiss you for the last time. this one lasted longer, the bittersweetness in it evident. 

you felt the love and the pain in it all.

and just like that he was gone, leaving your fairytale behind

 ❝ remaining fantasy, that’s more romantic to me ❞ 

namjoon watched bitterly as you laughed at this random dude’s joke, unaware of his watchful eyes. it’s been two years since that incident and he didn’t regret anything more than the moment he let you go. the only thing he was grateful for was the moments you go to make and that he was able to tell you that he loved you.

he didn’t expect to see you. after that day you quit your job and namjoon wasn’t able to find you anywhere. it was like you disappeared for a bit.

but the moment he say your eyes, he knew it was you. his y/n. but his y/n was on another man’s arm, your smile that used to be for his eyes only. 

namjoon pushed his sunglasses up before walking past you two, not noticing the way you turned around as if his figure seemed familiar before turning back to your lover.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 2nd Season Ep25 [”I’m Different Now”]:

For the season finale [but not series finale, because they’ve already announced a third and final season for next year], we get a huge plot twist that completely changes our perspective on one of the characters, and their various relationships, in a way that has major implications about the future of the story and how things will progress.

Aside from all that, we also get the world’s worst gender reveal party.

Thoughts under the cut.

Just to start off, this episode adapted chapters 96 and 97 like I figured it would, to wrap up this season with a big cliffhanger to hype people up for the final season. And for better or worse, this was a pretty much 1:1 adaptation of these chapters, so there’s not really any differences to talk about that I noticed.

Anyway, I may as well just cut right to the chase and talk about the whole Shocking Gender Reveal Plot Twist[tm], now that that’s out in the open and everyone can stop tiptoeing around it.

It’s not like I’ve really tried to hide it or how I feel about it as a plot point before this, but I really do dislike it on basically every level. There’s a whole lot to unpack about it, but really at the end of the day it’s just one of those old-fashioned plot devices where we’re meant to think that someone being a different gender to what you thought they were is inherently something scandalous and shocking. They could have at least immediately started talking about the idea of her being raised as a man against her will, since that’d at least give it some actual meaning and value, but they don’t, which really says a lot about how that’s actually kinda just a foot-note that the story doesn’t dwell on much, and in practice we’re just meant to be surprised that she’s a girl.

It doesn’t really help that the season just ends right there, when in the manga this whole sequence keeps going in the next chapter, and I think they start touching upon that part of Akito’s backstory then, but the anime won’t get into that until next year at this point, so I think it’s fair to take it as it’s presented right now.

The idea of Akito being a girl is surprising in basically the exact same way that it’d be surprising if we found out that Haru was a Sanrio fan, or something. That is to say, it’d be vaguely surprising, but then we’d all just go on with our lives.

Even at this point you can definitely guess that there’s probably something going on with her being forced to present as a man, but it hasn’t really been explained or touched upon yet, so it’s all pretty nebulous, at least from the perspective of someone like Tohru who barely knows Akitto at all and doesn’t know all the stuff about her past that Kureno does.

In general I’ve never been a fan of this entire trope to begin with, but I think it’s made a lot worse by the fact that, as you get further into the rest of the story, it becomes clear that it’s not even that important, and the majority of what’s going on with Akito’s character has much more to do with the curse situation and how it impacts her relationship with the zodiac members. The whole deal with her character is how being the god of the zodiac from birth forced her to be pretty much raised in seclusion, with her only frame of reference for human relationships being abusive cult behavior. She’s miserable and twisted because she isn’t allowed to live a normal life due to her status, and her possessiveness gets enabled by the people that she clings onto, putting her into a loop of arrested development and mental instability.

And literally none of that has anything to do with her gender, lol. None of it would be different if she was a cis man, or if she had been raised as a woman. Because that whole deal isn’t actually all that relevant to why she is the way she is, why she has the attitude and world-view that she does, and why her relationships are so fucked up. Even if you decided to write out her romantic/sexual relationships with people like Kureno and Shigure by having her be a man, that’d barely change anything about the story as a whole, because even if it was entirely for platonic reasons Kureno would have still decided to stay with Akito and ultimately enable her actions, and Shigure would most likely still more or less do all the same things he’s already done. And obviously to begin with, if Akito was actually a dude that wouldn’t even necessarily mean you couldn’t still have some of these relationships play out this way, so you can’t even really act like the story required her to be a girl for that reason, lol.

And for better or worse, if Akito was written as a gay dude, it could still totally have lead to all the same stuff with her possessiveness over the male zodiac members, and her irrational hatred of the female zodiac members. It’d just be a different, more homophobic sort of trope than what actually happens, in a way that plays out in basically the exact same way. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve gotten a villain who’s a gay dude that irrationally hates women for Reasons [tm], and who has ominous and sinful relationships with men.

Which is also the reason why I don’t exactly think the story would be ‘better’ if she had been written as a gay dude, or as a trans woman, or anything like that. With her whole role in the story to begin with, it’d play out in an obnoxious way no matter what. Mostly I just kinda wish they had completely avoided this sort of outdated, schlocky storytelling to begin with, and just focused entirely on the more interesting stuff about her character.

And in terms of outdated tropes, we haven’t even gotten properly introduced to Ren yet, lol.

I’m also assuming that they’re not exactly planning to change anything about this in the anime, so I’m just going with my existing thoughts about how the manga handled it, since that should still carry over to the anime.

I know that this is all just beating a dead horse with a stick because of how long the series has been out for, but I still just can’t help but be irritated by this whole mess.

I don’t want to spoil it too much, but I think a good comparison to make is the recent Banana Fish adaptation, and how from what I gathered, most people’s reactions to that series’ ending was ‘I know it’s just a product of it’s time, but this is just kinda unironically shitty’.

Ultimately, I think a big part of why this annoys me so much is because I actually really like Akito’s whole character and what the story does with her after this point. I just dislike how it’s shackled to this unnecessary plot twist that ends up dominating the conversation surrounding her even though it’s barely relevant to anything after this in the story.

The stuff with her being the god of the zodiac and how much it fucks up her entire life and all of her relationships is genuinely really compelling, and represents an integral part of the story’s overall message about the nature of abusive families and cults, and the various ways they end up hurting everyone inside them. Her whole arc is about learning how to embrace a life that’s not based around being a god surrounded by their followers, and I think that aspect of it works really well, especially with how it ties into all the stuff with Tohru later on.

I also think that all the stuff with Kureno that gets revealed in this episode is genuinely really interesting, and is ACTUALLY a plot twist that meaningfully shakes things up, and people actually have a reason to be surprised by it. Especially Tohru, since her whole goal at this point is to break the curse, and now she’s literally found someone who’s already had their curse get broken. It’s basically the first major lead she’s found in her whole search for answers, but in the end it kinda just, y’know, gets overshadowed by the gender reveal and her being shocked about that instead.

It’s also still really interesting to me how the Kureno situation is basically the only time where the story seriously talks about the implications of the animal transformation part of the curse, and how someone in the zodiac might internalize that part of themselves. Most of the time, the animal transformation part of the curse is kinda irrelevant, and the series could work in 99% the same way without it. I think Takaya’s literally said before that she didn’t even plan to include that whole aspect of the story until her editor suggested it fairly late into the process, and I think that shows with how it’s kinda just there for some wacky hijinks early on, and then it just gets benched in favor of the actual stuff Takaya wanted to write about.

But with Kureno we actually get a look into what it meant for him to be able to literally turn into a bird, and how losing that ability affected his sense of identity and how he engaged with the world. It’s still ultimately just metaphorical in it’s own way, but it still feels like more of an acknowledgement of the fact that they literally turn into animals than basically any other part of the story, lol. And in general I just think it’s at least compelling on paper that he ends up shackling himself of his own free will, because that sense of freedom and disconnect made him feel obligated to stay with Akito to ‘make up for it’.

I just wish that Kureno as a whole was interesting enough for me to actually care that much about all of this, lol. In the end he’s just kinda intentionally boring, and it’s more interesting to write about his role in the story than it is to actually, like, watch him do stuff as a character. Which I guess is all just part of how much it bugs me that all of the interesting stuff in this episode, and this whole part of the story, feels like it gets overshadowed and drowned out by a dumb shock value plot twist.

There’s also all the thematic stuff with how he’s basically Tohru if she was taken advantage of and had all of her own bad habits enabled until she ended up barely being a functioning adult. He even has his whole personal conflict about feeling like moving on with his life and developing new relationships is an act of betrayal towards someone that he really needs to let go of at this point. But then you just get into the whole Uo thing and how their whole relationship is about as compelling as the whole Cinderella plot that it’s clearly a reference to, and aaaaaaah why is this series so frustrating, lol.

Really, the fact that I can gripe so much about stuff like this just goes to show how much I like the series in general, since I can’t muster up any strong feelings about stuff like this if I just straight up dislike it as a whole. At least for me, stuff like this is much more frustrating when it’s one part of a larger story that I really love. Thankfully there’s more good than bad when it comes to this series, so I can still hold onto it as a personal fave that I just happen to have complaints about.

I’m genuinely really excited for the final season, in spite of all this, since there’s a whole lot I love about the final third of the manga, and in a funny way, the fact that Akito being a girl isn’t actually that big of a deal in the long run, and what actually happens with her as a character after this is more about her status as the god of the zodiac, actually means that I’ll [mostly] enjoy a lot of it. It’s mostly just this specific part where we get the Big Reveal [tm] itself, and the immediate lead-up to it, that bugs me.

Anyway, as a whole, I still think this is a good episode that serves as a fitting cliffhanger for the season. The actual plot twist that most of the episode focuses on is really good, and serves a really meaningful role in progressing the story, and it gives a pretty clear picture of how we’re entering the final act of the story.

Hopefully the final season will start in April next year like the first two seasons did, but it’s entirely possible it might get delayed because of the whole pandemic situation. But I could live with them holding off on starting the final season until it’s ready to come out.

Also, before I forget, they haven’t said anything about it, I’m pretty sure the final season will also be around 25 episodes long. With how many chapters they have left, if they stick to the same two chapters per episode pace that the anime’s had on average thus far, they could easily cover the rest of the story in 22 episodes, which would be a lot easier to expand by an extra two or three episodes, than it’d be to condense it all the way down to 13 or so episodes.

[alluringoneirataxia]

Long Winding Road Stay Strapped My Dude

By: Astoria Cathryn Andromeda

Alrighty, this is a long one boys. So I touched briefly on this in my Welcome to Literally Everything post. No worries I'll recap you, so you don't have to switch back and forth. I just diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and then ADHD when I was 18 years old, and even then I had to fight for it after countless hours of research. See, there seems to be a wee bit of misogyny in the neurodiverse diagnoses. When I say a wee bit, I mean that scientists used to think that only boy could be autistic or ADHD. They only studied autism in males. Fortunately, nowadays we know that girls can be autistic and/or ADHD, but we present the traits differently than boys, and a lot of our traits are played off due to gender roles in society. For example, being overly talkative in girls is called chatty, whereas boys who can't sit still are sent off for testing immediately. This also causes problems for the boys, because little Johnny gets put on Adderall at the ripe age of 6 years old, just because he can't sit still for 8 hours straight, which by the way should not be expected of any elementary school kid, By the time, he's 25 he's 1) completely dependent on amphetamines 2) his body will stop producing dopamine due to being on the medication for so long. Nicht Gut. Generally, boys who are on the spectrum get picked out earlier due to late speaking, or lack of social skills. This is the one thing that girls happen to do better than boys. Girls are good at masking, which is basically taking social traits, phrases, personalities, demeanor, and copying them. In public, they put on a mask and at home, they have a meltdown. Girls are still not picked up as being on the spectrum, because shyness is called being 'ladylike' and 'dainty', and having a meltdown is just because :( girls are oh-so emotional, boohoo. Anyways tons of women do not get diagnosed with autism until they are well into their adulthood, I actually can be considered lucky to have technically still been a teenager when we finally got all the pieces together.

Alright, let's start with I don't know me as a baby. I did not speak until I was 2 years old, and then it was immediately full sentences from then on. I didn't do the babbling thing, which I don't know how impactful that really is to the topic. I was a very shy little girl. I was teeny tiny, we didn't know I if I was going to make it to 5 feet tall until I had a big growth spurt in 7th grade. I am 5'2 now and definitely done growing in case you were wondering, so not that short anymore. I did not like talking to adults, especially strangers, especially men. I did not look anyone in the face, and I will always hide behind my parent's legs when they would try to introduce me to people. I am an only child, and I spent a lot of time entertaining myself. I always had seasonal affective disorder, where my grades would dip in the winter. My parents knew I had a timer, they had 45 minutes from the moment they stepped into a restaurant before I would start breaking down. If I got off schedule as a toddler in any form, it was a catastrophe. Or this is what my parents and family tell me. I didn't really notice. I did not like being out in public a lot, I was a very picky eater, and I was extremely hyper. I was a very eccentric child, I only had 1-2 close friends and they were always a very well-liked outgoing girl who I just followed around. Looking back, I don't know how we missed it. I was shy because I didn't understand how social interactions worked, I was anxious about it because I didn't understand, I had sensory overloads, routines, and a very bland diet with a safe food which was ketchup. I put that shit on literally everything, eas, apples, mac and cheese, pizza, all meat, anything something forced me to eat that I did not like. But because I could sit still in class, and because I could zone out and daydream all day through school and still make A's nobody ever flagged me for anything and how I was supposed to know that not everybody just copied other people, scripted things before they talked, and could never pay attention. My mom always required me to be in a sport, and I was a gymnast and a swimmer for a long time, two very high-intensity sports, to help lower my energy levels, and because my mom has mild depression and she knows that exercise does help. Skip to middle school, my mom tells me I'm being bullied at church. It's not that I wasn't observing my surroundings I knew I was being excluded, but I didn't understand vindictive behavior, I thought it was my fault. I had zero friends in 8th grade until I sat down next to a random acqutaince I had gone to school with since I was 4 and the same gymnastics place. Then we were immediately attached at the hip after that. She is my best friend due this day and definitely got me through high school. Led me through so many social situations without either of us knowing. I had a very close friendgroup in highschool, all of them were on the drumline which I met through my best friend, and my first boyfriend was my best friend's neighbor. I ended up playing bass guitar for my high school's indoor drumline, and it was the best experience ever. I love my friends, but I had really bad depression when I was 15-now:) jk It's better. I didn't really realize I was depressed, I just didn't want to go to school, or swim practice, or do anything so of course, my mom noticed, and then once it was pointed out to me it got worse. My severe anxiety spiraled with my depression. Senior year of high school, my boyfriend and I were like toxic star crossed lovers, hurting each other over and over again without meaning to. My friends and I were self harming, all my close friends gad some demon going on. I finally decided to try therapy again after the disaster of being forced to go when I was 15 and the lady told me I wasn't depressed because I had a boyfriend and good grades. It helped a bit, I was able to get my panic attacks under control. Then I went away to college and stayed dating my senior high school boyfriend, we were just up and down as always, but with slightly better communication. My freshman year of college I joined a fraternity, a research lab, and my first hs boyfriend/ex/best friend and I went to a Christian campus place. By second semester, I had a lot of people who knew me and talked to me, but I didn't have any close friends, and even less close friends who were girls. All my close friends who were girls were at another college. My parents were worried about me, so they made me rush a sorority, which I knew was never my scene, but my parents made me join and I found a few girls I liked. Soon I was going to 6 classes, fraternity chapter, research lab meetings, christain crash group meetings, soriorty pledge meetings all on every Tuesday. I was different person at each of these events and wore a different mask. I was having what I know now were autistic burnout meltdowns every single day on the phone in my crusty dorm's stairwell. It was not cute. His mental health had always been bad too. Finally I decide I need to try a psychatrist and go back to therapy, and then he broke up with me. Then I made my first close friend, a guy who was in 3 of classes, and I took him to my fraternity's formal, and then coronavirus happened.  Rona kinda saved my grades, and mental health by sending us home event though it did suck. I got on anti-anxiety meds and things went up, but I was still having what I thought were panic attacks, they were austistic meltdowns. My psychiatrist, he's kinda an asshole, he diagnosed me with Obessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. I'll insert definition here: (OCPD) is a personality disorder that's characterized by extreme perfectionism, order, and neatness. People with OCPD will also feel a severe need to impose their own standards on their outside environment.> Basically hr told me I had rules for everything like how everyone drives on the right side of the road, but nobodythinks about it andwhen I broke one of my rules I got depressed, and when wasn't perfect I got depressed, and when I made an A I was relieved not proud. The diagnosis seemed to fit really well, and my therapist and I started working finding my rules, and getting rid of the bad ones, and making the others less harsh. I had thought every once and in a while in my life when I was really upset, what if I'm on the spectrum, because I just felt so hopeless for social interactions and I didn't understand. I always felt like I was a very specific person, but after the ocpd I started thinking more and more, and I saw a tik tok of a girl with lae diagnosed autism basically describing me and ranting about the misogyny. I did more research and I decide, yea I'mm gonna bring it up to mypsychatrist well he's a dick, so he was like um you don't act like sheldon cooper from the Big Bang theory,and I was like wellI just I have always thought I might have adhd like be neureodiverse, and he was like your grade point average in hs was a 97.8%, you're not adhd. I immediately cried, because I can't handle when anyone says anything in a even a slightest stringent tone. I'm baby, I know lmao. It made me angry though because I felt like he just brushed away all of my struggles I had in my whole life. I spent hours researching and typed up a 47 page document on evidence for why I was on the spectrum, and had my parents help will some of checklists to make sure I was getting outside perspectives. I rally my parents to be my back up and next psychiatrist appointment we actually talk about it and he asked my parents questions about when I was young and such and finally he was okay you're on the spectrum. I felt so validated and like I could start being myself. I slowly got more and more confident, changed my style of clothing, and researched more about adhd pushed to be tested, and oh look at that I also have ADHD. So basically discourse: "I feel like as a child I coded a machine to do life for me so I didn’t get bothered except I didn’t know about the machine I thought i was the machine and now I’ve become self aware and I have to learn how to read the code and rewrite the code because it’s dysfunctional because I’m not functioning well as a human being. I was really shy as a child. I would turn beat red when people talked to me or looked at me so I think I started cookie cutting situations and using them over and over again because they worked until I accidentally hard wired these expansion rules and expectations for myself. I didn’t may attention is class ever I just day dreamed and if I got good grades i wouldn’t be bothered i could just stay in my head and if I did my sport well my parents didn’t bother me. I was never asked if I did my homework I just did it so I wouldn’t be asked and have to deal with that situation. I would cookie cutter situations in class that would draw the least attention to myself.

I feel like i don’t have friends I just fulfill the expectation like a side quest on video games" I wrote this down pre autism confirmation when i just thought I had ocpd. Now I don't directly identify with ocpd, but I definitely think I developed that personality disorder a bit from living with undiagnosed autism. I am linking below the very informative Tik Toks by the lovely Paige on autism in girls. The imposter syndrome one really hit home. I had had so many panic attacks about thinking I tricked people into being my friend, or thinking I was smart.

I highly suggest watching these short tik toks, you'll definitely learn something

https://vm.tiktok.com/wVvcYA/

https://vm.tiktok.com/wqRRUf/

https://vm.tiktok.com/wnqhvX/

https://vm.tiktok.com/wqeyYg/

https://vm.tiktok.com/wnoE7u/

https://vm.tiktok.com/Kas6gB/

https://vm.tiktok.com/owM9hs/

Imposter syndrome

I am also linking an article about Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory and Autism that explains why my psychiatrist was wrong, and also I am a girl and the spectrum is called a spectrum because it's a fucking spectrum no two autistic people are exactly the same it's like a color wheel.

http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/news/problem-sheldon-cooper-and-cute-autism-387783

Here is a fun comic about the spectrum and how to view it.

https://the-art-of-autism.com/understanding-the-spectrum-a-comic-strip-explanation/

I am still learning about myself, and how to be me, and how to be myself but without breaking bad social rules. It's quite humorous though because I'll learn something is related to autism and I'm like oh shit again, like still, like, we're still discovering things.

"Tu ne me manques pas"

Bis später,

Astoria.

[throwingideasatthewall]

Clone Wars       Massacre

Oh, wow is that what     we’re really going with,

  Don’t get me wrong     the tone has been better     but are you sure you want to take on something       like a massacre?         (Sla-very-            Kinda-

   Aight,

  Start,

 (Also yeah whatever did happen to Ventress because she screwed up in attempt at Dooku’s life*, backing   down, and I thought she had just    cool-ed from the whole revenge thing-      -    *Not killing him        voluntarily   when she had the chance,        -          No

   Lightsisters? 

   Did I-       hear that      right?

    Yeah,

       It honestly sounds like they’re saying                “Lightsisters,”                        Instead                     of                  night sisters                     as                    previous,

Also yeah going back to the people that encouraged your toxic behavior and are toxic enabling generational breakers

Also, they don’t recognize      her?

I do have to admit I never got the idea of     plasma arrows,

   Or possibly     coming to hold someone accountable,

   That expression really      doesn’t speak of flee  

   Ing

  Also I’ve vented my emotions and I’m going to go kick the        unaccountables to the curb

   (With maybe        one more ro        -ast       before I do          so-)

   Point being, she seems a lot more stable          (And center     -ed)

   Uhm

     ?

   What,  

    Ok there was a small       modicum of change            in the emotions,

     Hid-ing

    Hey, that’s good

    Much

    Hey there’s some accountability there,

    Has forsaken

    Okay never mind       it’s spiraling             downward           -s

     N-othing

     Sisters

     Kinda the weakest relation of all 

       but this is actually pretty on top

      Just replace sister with a “friend,” or “generation,”     and you’ve got a good idea

        At least it wasn’t             “me”,

        Yeah,

        Sith

      Okay, that’s some good    advice,

        Us       That’s a bit of thought assuming,

        Ordered about

     Ah, lady that includes you          you know,

       Sisters

       Ok you know I’m all about loyalty to generation and humanity,          But this is feeling kind of supremacist right now,

     Like

       Maybe        a bit jumpy,

  Okay this is a relatively validating       talk

   Never mind it just got tox and         over involved,

     Gosh darn it

   The Bean wanted some actual non- over- involvement       affection/in     valid          ation-            And you turned it           tox,          Oof,      

    Ships

                           There are                           lots of ships, by the way

     Yeah, is this back to hunting down savage line or did          I just-           Oh,       Well this is an odd conversation

     Grievous just bounding up

           Not actu                     ally the relaxed or cordial meeting

           You’d expect from two people of      evil,

         Two that know the location of each other’s               lair,

         ...summon

   Pretty much out of nowhere because Dooku usually uses the       hologram, so far as we’ve seen,          And there hasn’t been any real big set up          to any sort of major event          That would require the           amassing of the                droid army,    Or an        in person      audience,

 Seriously,   you called him here for       that?

  Look my apprentice        tried to very weakly kill me         Pretty much up and           gave up near        the end,

      But I’m still sore,

    So I’m sending             you

Grievous; (internally)        I am a general         how would I be any          help in tracking down         one person, with            my pro-             fess            ion            in        Military,             A category so broad and       general (Area of            effect) that I would be          near to absolutely useless              in this quest,           Which boils down to very             specific              pettry

       Again how is     Grievous going to be at all helpful in this?            -              Like that’s a small ragtag team of          rebels,

         That is way below            his area of affect,

          He’s more likely to bungle it up on the basic concept of it’s             really outside his thing,    

 Also yeah let’s send the one lone person to a place most known for its        gaslighting,

     I know grievous is robot       but he clearly has emotions like a human          (Or any sentient)         Requiring/desiring stimuli            and companion                  -ship,

               (As                  seen                  previously)

                 Really this quest is really outside his       mode of    operation,

   Like he’s used to strictly logical widespread     warfare, against multiple moving shapes           (large vessels)

     And you’re sending him in to close range   restrained targets using emotional manipulation, at       high sp-        eeds-           -           (Similar to guerrilla warfare)

   You’re setting this dude up for failure

   Yeah he might succeed by numbers alone

    But you’re going to lose a lot just           based on wastefulness and           just that not being his mode of operation    (Noting particularly the expedition where he crash landed on a planet and barely made out with his skin)

-abandoning     hundreds of         troops   -         (I’ve already talked enough about how this                 just doesn’t work                            and     how this should be seen as a stupid move)

    And should be seen as more of an insult.

     Bent         Back

      Blue            Robe-                -             To         Battle            . . .           Against a small group of          rebels

(Like   seriously,)

Buddy, you can stop with the epic music I know that’s a lot of ships but there is nothing epic about this,

   Any way..

    Okay, never mind this got really tox,

    I do

  Loyalty is always been a weird concept to me because yeah it always changes because there’s so much to see and do

   The only loyalty should be to the concept of    account-ability

  (And not    being a dick    ,)

Ven -tress joins a death cult

  [Seriously blood oaths and              life oaths               are cre                ep-

People and things changed and no amount of oaths or       false promises are going to             fix that,

   It’s just something you have to except             or manage, correctly

You can’t control    other people.

Whelp she drank the whole thing of Kool-Aid,

(Also didn’t they just go over the con-   - sequences of messing with the stuff,”

Also guess he’s going to need a new name because     Ven-tress given to her by    her abuser      (Or was    so implied,”       )

?

Also I’m supposed to view this as advanced gaslighting      right

What hap-pened?

 Her eyes?

Night

“M       -other,”            Yep she’s drinking that Kool-Aid

     F-east

   Oh it was going to be used to introduce us to anyone else because we know literally no one and everyone else seems to be just   extras,

Bo-nding     is    nice,

  Will    ing        ly,         -      W-h         -        This is going      on-

    ?

   Thank you          p-erson I barely know          -            Also Dooku coming into ruin good times                   -           Buzz kill             -              Droid                . . .                  You know if it’s been time building up their                 bond,

           This might’ve been more impactful-

           [ It still works but       the weird creepy in humane behavior before hand doesn’t really help,”  

    ]

    Any way,

    W-ar

   So much for your plan

  [oh so yeah attacking random [Neutral] planet just because you have a    hate bo      -ner

     ?         -?

   You know this would be better if           it had occur-            red like right     -after,

    Like, Dooku, was like;        Okay, well that plan went horribly,           So now I know that Ven-           tress and all of          Dathomir hates me,

    Let me send someone        stealthy to do the job

     You’re telling me Dooku doesn’t have anyone           Besides like the main three            four-            Bad guys?             -             Like this is chain of command where are the         gimmick minions?

   [Besides evil, vengeance        And t    -ech,”           ]

      ?   Oy why do you have the Clankers  and the tanks    marching next to each   other?

  Like what do you want the    heavy artillery in the back,

  Yeah I get this gives them better   range but wouldn’t you want some    pro-tection            -             ?

   Also yeah what happened to all the       males?

   Like I know Ven-       tress       beat a couple of them     up,

    But,

     ?      -       No, they’re here because      Dooku is an ass who doesn’t understand   strat-egic     planning,

And also he sent   Grievous,

 Like you’re the     (Ex) concept of vengeance

     -          The confidence   alone        -    you should kick his ass

Also,     sense it?

 There was only four guys     to your entire   operation,      like 1/4         Chance..

W-h

 That suck         -ed

  Also   good job not dodg-        ing,

 Seriously that was pure     rock that she could      see coming,

Okay, there’s no way     -she’s dead,

    ?

  Okay?

Also where are the lines because you really didn’t have        her plan for this shit,

   [Also this would be a really great moment right now Ventress to go to Bez-er-ker mode and get some revenge on her ab-       us       -er          -       I know this whole things theme     is “letting go of the past,”        Which you do,         after you get the past somewhere          where it can’t constantly            hurt you,

  And pose      a threat            (Or          stress,     )

Point being emotions have a      reason as well as      (a time and a Place)       And while venting is fine           murder is not,            Don’t      conflict        the two        . . .   [Also     they’re just clustered together,”

   also how is your        gaslighting         magic going to         work against robots?

  [also is Ven-tress going to die because her arc is pretty much over and the only way I can see this ending is via redemption equals death

    (Seeing as she’s around Obi-Wan’s age (or at least an adult around          Sky          -walker’s) so her window of absolute redemption and accou-         ntability is      pretty much         over..

     Also,          Ok, I guess it’s against droid it’s not too much out of her       range,

     (Though if it’s actual people she would probably         be dead,)

    Or     daca?

  At-      tack-

  Also I guess she’s      lead-              er now,            (Also that line was a little        emotionaless)

        Trees

     Makes sense for the ar-           -chers     -use the surroundings,               ?

           Did she just            fall off a tree,              ,                    Good for                 Them,

         A-ight-

             ?

[so yeah sending the robots to deal with these sentient     person 

 least to say it’s no surprise that ended up terribly,

           ?

        Witches

        Again sending the tech guy was pretty much       guaran-      teeing failure,

      As in any older Gen          -younger Gen        fight-

   Metall

      ?

   Cave?

    Holo-    

    ?        ?

   ?  

[again    I’m putting that down to gaslighting          magic,]

     ?

   Why the look back?

    Or is that just showing us the magic cave 

     (for future reference)          -            ?

     And apparently the attack just stopped 

   (or maybe it’s on a different front)

    Point being those guys want needed and Mother needed two people to get the thing,

    ?

  What          ?

   Ser-iously there’s just someone       be-hind there?

   What’s the point of the            metal?

     Not,      even the same species

   (I think)

  Also, resurrect-?

   Look lady I don’t know what you know about resurrection but it doesn’t work like that,

  Definitely not something              a boomer can perform,

   Also,        Ah, movie you might not want to do that considering bringing people back from the dead tends to break any kind of tension,  or suspension,

   And she was presumably         an adult,

    So yeah      that shouldn’t be possible,

      ?

 Okay,  you do not really       want to go there,

    Ok yeah I’m going to have the bitch...   out about now

       (I don’t there’s anything particularly tox         or that I should know any of that info-             rmation,

      This is generally supposed to be some divine          zombie bullshit,

       Which,              Is just a nope for me          personally,

[Honestly this episode is completely fine, clearly meant to be some kind of  Grievous vs Ventress thing, and so long as the bring things back to the dead pothole gets closed up by the end of it      ,I’m not too mad

  (Otherwise the galaxy is pretty damn       screw.         -ed        [Quick.       Reverb]         Scan         

[digitalmark18-blog]

Making SEO & User Experience Work Together by @stoneyd

New Post has been published on https://britishdigitalmarketingnews.com/making-seo-user-experience-work-together-by-stoneyd/

Making SEO & User Experience Work Together by @stoneyd

When I started doing SEO back in the day, rankings were the only thing that mattered.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but in my very earliest days, my optimization practices constituted getting the keyword on the page as many times as possible without ruining the visitor’s on-page experience.

It’s heartening to know that I, and the industry at large, have come a long, long way since then.

In fact, one of the most significant evolutions that has happened over the years (and there have been many), is SEO professionals (a.k.a., digital marketers, web marketers, inbound marketers, etc.) growing up to be real marketers.

We realized that helping businesses do a better job at reaching, attracting, and converting their target audience was even more important than search engine rankings.

But we aren’t the only ones who have grown up.

Search engines grew up as well.

Spammers have always sought the lowest bar for entry (easiest way to achieve rankings) and brute force attacked the hell out of it. This forced search engines to raise the bar, which then forced SEO practitioners to raise the bar.

This cycle repeated year after year to where we are today.

And for that, the search engines can thank us.

Yet, the smart SEO pros are those who got ahead of the search engines long before any new algorithm rolled out.

Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and all the other algorithm updates had nary an impact on the web marketers who were focused on marketing their clients’ websites.

Those who were still looking for the easy way to get rankings got hit and hit hard, time and time again.

Yet, a small handful of SEO pros through the years breezed through each algorithm update like it was expected. Because, well, it kinda was.

We were busy working for our clients’ larger goals rather than working for rankings that may or may not help them achieve what they wanted: Growth. And for any business to grow, they have to focus on their customers first.

User Experience Is Critical to SEO

There is a whole field of UX optimization that requires its own level of expertise.

The typical SEO professional doesn’t have to be a full-fledged UX expert. However, they should have an understanding of many of the basic website UX principles.

UX optimization is nothing more than focusing on the visitor.

Everything we do in the sphere of web marketing has to have the visitor in mind.

Yes, we do certain things for search engines, but search engines (almost always) require those things because they have learned it’s what their users (searchers) want.

Search engines have some of the most advanced data mining operations in the world. They aren’t just helping people find what they want; they’re collecting data that helps them understand user behavior. From that data, the algorithms get tweaked in order to give searchers more of what they want and less of what they don’t.

Which means websites that do a better job of meeting the needs of searchers have a better chance of landing on the first page of the search results. In this sense, anything we do for search engines we are doing for the searchers.

User experience shouldn’t just be a by-product of SEO, however.

We don’t do UX because the search engines tell us to!

Wise SEO professionals are going above and beyond the requirements of Google and Bing and looking for ways to improve their user experience overall.

And one really good reason is that search engines can only assess certain aspects of searcher behavior. If they see someone is bouncing back to the search results after hitting your site, they just know they bounced, they don’t really know why.

That bounce could be the result of one or 10 things wrong with your site.

It doesn’t matter to the search engine; they just see the bounce and, perhaps, factor that into how well you should rank.

Your job as the SEO is to determine what’s causing this behavior and then figure out ways to provide a better result for the visitor overall.

SEO / UX Best Practices

As I said above, you don’t have to be a UX expert to take some strong strides in providing a better user experience that complements your SEO efforts.

In fact, the best place to start is with conventional wisdom.

Before we get into some semi-universal best practices for SEO/UX, keep in mind that not all “best practices” are going to be the best thing for you, your industry, or your visitors.

Something that may work wonders for one website could be disastrous for you. Just because Amazon does it doesn’t mean you should too! (Of course, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, either.)

Keyword Research

The base starting point for almost all online marketing is keyword research.

This affects everything from web design to site messaging to navigation to the content of the site.

While keyword research isn’t a “best practice” that you can implement into your website, it is essential to for most of the best practices outlined here. Which means this is where you should start.

There is a whole art to keyword research, and I recommend you read up on it:

Once you’ve got the hang of how to do keyword research, there are a few other points that are helpful to understand before deciding which keywords will be important to your overall marketing efforts.

Searcher Language

Keywords give us extremely valuable insight on how searchers think about our products or services.

Far too often, businesses use language that is native to those within the industry.

However, many searchers aren’t in the industry and may not even know the “official” words that describe any particular product or service.

Keyword research not only uncovers the words they use to describe what they want but also the problems and solutions they are looking for.

This is valuable information that can inform your content later.

Searcher Intent

Not all keywords or phrases will mean what we think they mean.

For example, one person searching with the phrase “website audit” may be looking for someone to perform the audit, while another may be looking for tips on how to do the audit themselves.

Often, the intent becomes clearer as you get into more long-tail phrases, but be careful about making assumptions.

You always want to deliver searchers to pages that match their intent.

Entice the Click

Optimization isn’t just about rankings, but about getting searchers to click to your site.

All things equal, the higher up on the page you are, the more likely you are to get clicked. But there is no reason you need to be equal when you can be superior to the competing search results!

It’s entirely possible to get more clicks to your site than a competitor who is ranking higher than you.

This can be accomplished by making sure that your search listing captures the visitor’s attention while using language that encourages them to click your result rather than another.

Bland language in the search results leads to poor click-through rate.

Give searchers a reason to choose you over the 10-20 other links on the page.

Title Tags

The title tag is (typically) the clickable link in the search result.

You have very limited space (about 70 characters), so use it wisely.

Make sure to use language that fits the search (keywords!) and provide additional, relevant information that is more likely to get the searcher’s attention as they scan the results.

URLs / Breadcrumbs

The URL of the page or the breadcrumb trail follows the title tag.

This provides an additional signal to the searcher regarding the relevance of the result.

If the URL or displayed breadcrumb trail doesn’t add value, or match the searcher’s intent, they may choose to disregard your site as a viable option.

Meta Descriptions

The meta description comes after the URL in the search result.

Here, you’re given a bit more room to reinforce and expand on the title tag message that caught their attention.

You have between 30 and 300 characters, with 150 being optimal, at least for the most important information.

Again, write what searchers might find valuable and encourage them to click through to your site.

Remember to address their needs using their language.

One caveat here: don’t spend too much time on this as Google is rewriting these tags in search results more often than not.

Keep the Scent

Getting visitors to click into your site is a job well done, but not a job completed. There is still a lot more to do.

You have to remember that visitors are always in a hurry. They don’t want to take a lot of time trying to figure out where they are or whether the page they landed on fulfills their needs.

In fact, if searchers don’t find what they are looking for within a few seconds of landing on your page, they often leave. Which means you have to make sure you do everything you can to confirm your page is the right one.

That’s called keeping the scent.

There was something about your search result that made them click into your site. They have started down a path based on that scent.

Now, you have to keep the scent by quickly confirming that you have what they came looking for, and encourage them to continue engaging with your site until they get a resolution.

Don’t let them lose the scent at any point. If they lose the scent, you lose them!

Site ID

One of the first things visitors see when they land on a page is the Site ID (a.k.a. logo).

Your logo should be obvious, and not surrounded by clutter.

It also helps if your logo (or accompanying tagline) provides some association with what the visitor needs.

Header Tags

Aside from the logo, visitors will often look to the header at the top of the page content to confirm that the page they landed on provides the information they came for.

The topmost heading tag (which should be an H1 – and the only H1 on the page) should provide a similar message as the page’s title tag.

You have no limitations here, other than what makes sense visually for the page, but use this to reinforce the message and to “title” the content that is below it.

You can also use additional headings to break up long content.

Visitors will often scan content looking for particular answers or solutions and heading tags can help them do that.

Navigation

Another signal many visitors use to confirm they are on the right site overall is to scan the navigation. This offers a nice chance to display your full value to the visitor.

Do you offer only one product or service, or do you offer many?

Either way, don’t hide your solutions or services under a “shop” or “services” menu link.

Display them proudly in your navigation, grouping them into relevant headings.

You want visitors to be able to articulate exactly what you offer by looking at your navigation alone.

Also, your navigation is a great place to use keywords! Each navigation link can be a relevant keyword phrase that leads to the content for that topic or solution.

Content Optimization

This is where you fulfill the searchers’ needs in full. It’s not just the scent but the meal you deliver here. Whatever they were looking for, the content must deliver.

Keep the content focused on a single need and use links to direct the visitor to more information as needed.

Each page of content should have a primary goal, and everything on the page should direct the visitor toward the completion of that primary goal.

Use keywords as needed (and relevant), but focus the content on a single topic that addresses the visitor’s needs and your goals for them.

Calls to Action

Navigation is important, but you need to incorporate other calls to action for the page’s goal(s).

Make sure your calls to action explicitly state what the visitor will get when they click.

While each page may have one primary goal, not every visitor will be ready to convert.

It can be beneficial to provide some secondary goals with calls to action that will keep the visitor engaged on your site but through a less direct route to the goal.

Be Fast

Speed is an increasingly important component of optimization.

Regardless of what platform (desktop, tablet, phone) the search is performed on, if your pages are slow to load, the search engines will likely limit your exposure to searchers, especially those working from slow connections.

That means you want your site to be lightning fast.

Searchers and site visitors are very impatient. They are more apt to leave and start a new search then they are to wait around to see what you offer.

Image Compression

Large images can take up a whole lot of bandwidth.

But with HD resolution screens so common, you can’t compromise on image quality for speed.

Instead, make sure to save images in the best format (jpg, gif, bmp) depending on what provides the best quality for your image.

You can then run your image through compression tools to decrease the size without decreasing the quality.

Streamlined Code

Technology has improved quite a bit since back in the day.

We can do things today with just a few lines of code that required a gluttony of code just a few years ago. And it keeps getting better!

While this is good for the web at large, it often means if you’re not keeping up, you’re slowing down.

Keep your code lean and clean to keep your site speed up to par.

Fast Servers

Your web host can also play a critical role in your site speed issues.

Sharing server space is likely to slow you down, so consider getting a dedicated server.

This is especially critical for businesses with a lot of traffic.

Talk to your web host about what you can do to speed up your site for a minimal cost.

Every host will have different options, but it’s imperative not to let your server bog you down.

Always be Testing

There is always room for improvement.

Just because a change you made works well doesn’t mean it can’t work better.

Everything that can be tested should be tested – and it’s OK to fail.

Even a test that turns out poorly is a learning experience for what not to do. You’d never know unless you test it, right?

In a perfect world, you’d test every UX change you make to see if the result improved performance before moving on to the next.

Unfortunately, we rarely visit – let alone live in – that perfect world.

Most sites are in such poor condition that taking one best practice at a time would take far too long to get measurable results.

If that’s you, you can probably make good headway implementing the best practices here and then going back to test variations and additional changes later.

Image Credits

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita

Source: http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/13962/9924047

[ds4design]

12 Phrases That Are Making You Sound Ignorant

How you communicate with others, whether if it’s through speech or written text, influences how others perceive and evaluate you as a professional.

According to Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and the author of ‘Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job,’ "Your ability to articulate your thoughts and ideas will have a direct correlation to how well you garner cooperation and persuade others to support your efforts and projects."

"The words you choose also convey your emotional intelligence,” adds Taylor.

Whether you’re communicating with a co-partner, client, team member, investor, or industry influencer, the language that you use has the power to make or break those relationships. So, to ensure that strengthen those relationships, here are 12 phrases to avoid because they make you come across as ignorant.

1. “I’ll have an expresso.”

Want to start your day with a jolt? Order an espresso, and not this non-existent drink. You’ll not only get your morning-caffeine fix, you won’t embarrass yourself in front of your local barista, the other people standing-in-line, and any other members of your party - like that high-profile client you’ve been trying to impress.

Related: 10 Misused Words That Make Smart People Look Stupid

2. “Well, that’s ironic.”

I’m going to go out on a limb and thank Alanis Morrisette for the misuse of irony. For example, if you arrived at a meeting and Jim from accounting is wearing the exact same tie as you, that’s not ironic. It’s a coincidence. If Jim referred you to his dentist, and the dentist has terrible teeth, that’s ironic.

Remember, a coincidence is whenever two unlikely activities share similarities, like breaking your arm before the rock-climbing company retreat. Irony is when there’s some type of reversal of what was expected. Situational irony would then be when an outcome turned out differently than you expected, like that dentist with the bad teeth. Verbal irony is when an individual says one thing but means another, like “It’s my day. I lost my wallet.”

3. “I was kinda, sorta, hoping we could discuss this in-person.”

"Kinda," and it’s twin "sorta," are just shortened versions of the phrases “kind of” and “sort of.” While kinda and sorta could work during a casual conversation with a friend, and even when battling an opponent during scrabble, these slang terms shouldn’t be used in your writing or when speaking to colleagues.

Even if you don’t shorten “kind of” and “sort of,” Steven Kurutz of The New York Times argues that these phrases have “become a verbal tic, a filler phrase” that we use whenever we’re unsure. So, if you’re 100 percent positive when making a statement, just kinda, sorta, avoid these phrases altogether.

Related: 9 Huge Mistakes You Don't Know You Are Making on Social Media

4. “Irregardless…”

I couldn’t help but chuckle during this exchange between Representative Mark Sanford and a constituent;

“Irregardless —” Sanford began, during a debate on pre-existing conditions.

“Irregardless is not a word!” a man cried.

“Regardless,” Sanford amended.

“Thank you!”

Here’s the thing. Irregardless is a word. So, who’s more ignorant? Stanford for making amends? Or, the man who believed that irregardless isn’t a word? Regardless, and the debate surrounding this word is heated, with many frowning upon anyone who uses “irregardless.” And, it’s easy to see why. “Irregardless” is a nonstandard word and does have that whole double-negative thing going against it. Additionally, when this word is uttered, it’s during a dialogue with someone else and not in written text.

To avoid any debates, it’s best to just avoid using this word. But, if you accidentally do, at least you know that it is in fact a real word.

5. “No worries/ No problem.”

These phrases are being used to replace “You’re welcome” or “It’s my pleasure.” While it’s not the end-of-the-word if you say “No problem” or the Australian-version, “No worries,” whenever someone says “Thank you,” it’s a pet peeve among many professionals. In fact, many of them consider these phrases inappropriate.

6. “Actually,...”

When you start a sentence with this word it can come across as if you’re criticizing the other party, you are making an excuse, or you're defensive. For example, if you were asked, “Do you have the slideshow presentation for the meeting tomorrow?” You began to respond with, “Actually... Jess has it.”

Even if you are being polite, adding an “actually” to the beginning of your sentences is unnecessary. If you were asked if you want a cup of coffee you could simply respond with “I would rather have tea.”

Related: The Biggest Judgment Error You Don't Know You're Making

7. “I did what I was suppose to.”

You’re not correctly using the word “suppose” in this phrase. It should be “supposed.” "I did what I was supposed to." Don’t forget to insert the "d" sound whenever you say this phrase. To avoid the confusion, say, "I did what I was asked to do," or "I did what was expected."

8. "I didn't have time to really analyze the agreement, so I just perused it."

Here’s the proper definition of peruse:

Does that sound like an indication you’ve read something quickly or glanced over a document?

Replace peruse with terms like “glimpsed,” “peeked,” “looked,” or “glanced.” So that statement above would now become, "I didn't have time to really analyze the agreement, so I just glanced over it."

9. “i.e.”

It’s easy to misuse “i.e.” and “e.g.”  Both are abbreviations of Latin terms that are similar. But, here’s the difference. I.e. stands for id est and roughly translates into "that is,” while e.g. stands for exempli gratia, which means “for example.”

If you’re confused, think of e.g. as "example given" and i.e. as "in essence."

For instance:

It’s early, and factors beyond anyone’s control (e.g., the euro, Iran) could impact the race. [Washington Post]

In 2005, America had the lowest personal savings rate since 1933. In fact it was outright negative — i.e., consumers spent more money than they made. [Chicago Tribune]

10. “You look tired.”

“Tired people are incredibly unappealing -- they have droopy eyes and messy hair, they have trouble concentrating, and they’re as grouchy as they come,” writes Dr. Travis Bradberry. “Telling someone he looks tired implies all of the above and then some.”

Instead you should ask, “Is everything okay?” According to Bradberry, “Most people ask if someone is tired because they’re intending to be helpful (they want to know if the other person is okay). Instead of assuming someone’s disposition, just ask. This way, he can open up and share. More importantly, he will see you as concerned instead of rude.”

Related: How to Receive a Compliment Without Being Awkward About It

11. “Let’s nip that in the butt.”

The correct phrase here is "nip it in the bud.” It has it’s origins from gardening because whenever you nip something in the bud you’re stopping it before it has the chance to flower. Nipping something in the butt, then, is meaningless - unless you're a dog chasing the mailman.

12. Big words.

No one is questioning your intelligence. But, studies have found that when you use big words you look, well, stupid. Even if you’re using the word correctly, others may think that you’re not as smart of your trying to be. You’re better off sticking with simple words. This will demonstrate that you not only have mastery over the English language, but that you know what you’re talking about because you’re an expert and not just faking it.